Moral support please?

[C&B&E]

We weaned DS off his dummy at almost 3.5  .  He *loved* it so much, and still talks about it fondly now  !  We were pretty strict that it was just for sleep times, although there were the occasional time when he would have it - immunisations/if he was very hurt or inconsolable etc.  If he felt like having his dummy in the day then he was always free to go to his bed and have it there - this felt a happy medium to me. 

I knew that a 'dummy fairy' or similar idea would not work for him - he really did not want to give it up and it genuinely helped him to get back to sleep if he woke in the night.  I read online about putting a pin prick in the dummy as it makes the sucking less soothing.  So we did that for a week, then added another pin prick.  Over the next couple of weeks I carefully cut away tiny pieces of the dummy until in the end it was pretty much a stump like a fat straw !  He still loved it but I knew it was not giving him any satisfaction sucking it.  So at that point we talked about him swapping the dummy for a playmobil toy.  He threw the dummy away himself and that was that!  I am glad we did it the way we did as i felt it actually weaned him off the satisfaction of sucking it and so it wasn't such a wrench for him to give it up.

(I know that it could be risky cutting a dummy up - but the way I did it was such that no pieces could just 'fall' off!)

[ZacsMumme]

Claire thank you for posting what worked for B. I think we may have to do something like this for Z. Fairy or the likes of one sterol for him either when the time comes

[Roseii]

Thanks girls
Shivi, my little sis can remember being weaned off the dummy too!! (She was 3yo she thinks, she does have a ridiculous memory!!)
Lolly I wish DH would do it without me Lol!!
She is still in a cot (which she doesn't climb into and I don't want to encourage!!) so I can't really send her up there to have a quick such on it.
Claire that is a good idea, dd2 is so, so comforted by actually sucking it, and v adept at finding them in the night, it's not like she only uses them just to fall asleep
I feel unbelievably guilty about doing this!! It's like, I introduced this thing to her, she adores it, and now I want to take it away!! However I do feel a lot better about her having it just at night (or if she goes for a nap) so I don't feel quite so anxious about weaning it at night.
Today she had a bit of a meltdown and really wanted it, about 4.30pm so it was prime time for her in terms of tiredness/irritability! But I didn't cave